Palmerston North pushes for ring road progress
Palmerston North is pulling out all the stops to gain traction for building a new regional freight ring road to get heavy trucks off residential streets.
The city council is putting the project forward in a submission on the FastTrack Approvals Bill, advocating that it be listed on the schedule on infrastructure projects to take the faster route for consent to proceed.
Known as the Palmerston North Integrated Transport Initiative, a programme of more than 70 works, the plan’s flagship project is the ring road.
Mayor Grant Smith and chief planning officer David Murphy are also pleading with Horizons Regional Council to make it the top priority in its regional land transport programme.
Murphy said the ring road was a long-held ambition for the city. It would provide an alternative route for freight, to get trucks off urban roads, but would also benefit central New Zealand, supporting the developing distribution cluster of Te Utanganui in the city’s north-east.
The council and several other submitters on the land transport programme pointed out the ring road would resolve risks at two of the country’s most dangerous intersections on Kairanga-Bunnythorpe Rd, and relieve pressure on a third, at Flygers Line and SH3.
They were adamant the project should be top of the region’s priority list in the plan that guided investment decisions by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.
Smith said with the draft Government Policy Statement on Transport elevating the importance of economic growth and productivity, it was important the city and region advocated strongly for the project.
Its case was supported in submissions by the Central Economic Development Agency and the Manawatū Business Chamber. Chamber chief executive Amanda Linsley said the ring road was part of a bigger picture including the Te Utanganui distribution hub, which would be critical for the economic growth and productivity of the lower North Island.
Agency chief executive Jerry Shearman said lifting the profile of the ring road projects would unlock investment in the distribution centres including KiwiRail’s proposed rail hub.
Manawatū District Council mayor Helen Worboys and chief executive Hamish Waugh said the ring road was key to realising the region’s vision for central New Zealand. Worboys said it would be useful to rename the project to distinguish between the ring road and its regional benefits and the aspects that were more specifically for Palmerston North’s benefit.
But they were facing pushback from other submitters and regional transport committee members about putting Palmerston North-centred priorities first.
At the moment, the top priority in the draft plan is a long-term fix to secure State Highway 1 at Utiku, a possible $108 million rebuild, beyond the immediate maintenance work that had been done.
Rangitīkei mayor Andy Watson said if the road was lost, possibly taking the main trunk railway with it, the North Island’s north-south arterial would be severed, and the project should be the region’s top priority.
Whanganui resident James Barron said Whanganui was barely mentioned in the plan, with only one project on the regional list touching the region’s second city – the median barriers being installed on SH3 from Bulls to Whanganui.
The need to replace Whanganui’s Dublin St bridge, which was “falling to bits”, was completely omitted.
Barron said the plan was “a tale of two cities” with a clear bias towards Palmerston North and its priorities.
Greater Bunnythorpe Community Committee spokesperson Aaron Fox said the ring road was a large and complex project that needed more planning and consultation with affected communities.
The regional council received 82 submissions on its draft plan, and 31 people spoke to those submissions.
It will deliberate on what to do with them on April 16.